FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Red Sox 2024 Opening Day roster might end up including two relievers who have never thrown a major league pitch.
Bryan Mata, who was Baseball America’s highest-ranked pitching prospect entering spring training 2023, has no minor league options remaining. He must make the roster or else be designated for assignment before Opening Day or traded.
Justin Slaten, who has pitched in only five games above Double A, has Rule 5 status. So he also must remain on the active roster for the entire 2024 season (barring an IL stint) or else be offered back to his previous team for $50,000.
It’s often difficult enough for teams to carry one Rule 5 Draft pick for an entire season. But the Red Sox essentially have two because of Mata’s similar situation. Mata underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021 causing him to miss that entire season. He pitched 83 innings in the minors in 2022 after returning from his rehab during the season. A shoulder injury then limited him to just 27 innings in 2023.
The Red Sox never placed Mata on the 60-day IL, which allowed them to retain all his service time. He is still under team control for another six years. But in the process, he ran out of options without ever pitching in the big leagues.
“There’s a lot of competition in camp,” pitching coach Andrew Bailey said. “There’s a lot of competition for rotation spots. There’s a lot of competition for roster spots. We want that. … My message to those two in particular is you want to make that decision for the front office as hard as possible. If you can do that, you’re in a really good spot. So that’s our goal: to make decisions hard.”
Carrying both Mata and Slaten creates a lack of roster flexibility throughout the season for manager Alex Cora and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow. If the bullpen is taxed, Mata and Slaten can’t be optioned to Triple-A Worcester for fresh arms.
“Roster-wise, the flexibility of making moves (makes it difficult),” Cora said. “At the end of the day, if you have good stuff and you throw strikes, you have a chance. Obviously that’s a decision we have to make towards the end. But they’re very talented. Slaten today, the stuff was really good. He threw cutters, breaking balls and the fastball. It was fun to watch. It’s somebody who is opening eyes right away. If we can harness the stuff in the zone, great things are going to happen.”
Ultimately, the Red Sox might need to choose between one because of the roster inflexibility.
Both Slaten and Mata throw hard. Slaten threw 62 four-seam fastballs in his five Triple-A outings (8.1 innings) last season, topping out at 98.3 mph and never throwing one below 94.1 mph. His average four-seam velo was 96.1 mph or faster in four of his five outings. Mata consistently is in the upper-90s. But both pitchers also need to throw more strikes. Mata has averaged 4.7 walks per nine innings in the minors while Slaten has averaged 4.5 walks per nine innings.
“We’ve been talking about him (Mata) for a while here and we know where we’re at in his situation,” Cora said. “I think obviously the next five, six weeks are going to dictate what we do. I think the only challenge is that roster flexibility. But if we have to carry two, we will. It’s because they earned it, not because we gave it to them.”